East Bay mom collects gently used clothing to help needy babies

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Dan Newton, center, and employees at Enterprise Holdings, sort through baby clothing collected by Loved Twice at their office in San Ramon, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Loved Twice, a non-profit organization, collects used baby clothing for the needy and social service agencies. The items were donated to the Oakland Family Resource Center and Children's Home Society of California. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Toys and baby clothing collected by Loved Twice are sorted through by employees at Enterprise Holdings in San Ramon, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Loved Twice, a non-profit organization, collects used baby clothing for the needy and social service agencies. The items were donated to the Oakland Family Resource Center and Children's Home Society of California. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Fiona Ali, left, and Ahmed Wajech pack baby clothing after sorting through at their Enterprise Holdings office in San Ramon, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Loved Twice, a non-profit organization, collects used baby clothing for the needy and social service agencies. These boxes were donated to the Oakland Family Resource Center and Children's Home Society of California. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Toys and baby clothing collected by Loved Twice are sorted through by employees at Enterprise Holdings in San Ramon, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Loved Twice, a non-profit organization, collects used baby clothing for the needy and social service agencies. The items were donated to the Oakland Family Resource Center and Children's Home Society of California. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Mario Sanabria, left, and employees at Enterprise Holdings, sort through baby clothing collected by Loved Twice at their office in San Ramon, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Loved Twice, a non-profit organization, collects used baby clothing for the needy and social service agencies. The items were donated to the Oakland Family Resource Center and Children's Home Society of California. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Fiona Ali, left, and Ahmed Wajech pack baby clothing after sorting through at their Enterprise Holdings office in San Ramon, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Loved Twice, a non-profit organization, collects used baby clothing for the needy and social service agencies. These boxes were donated to the Oakland Family Resource Center and Children's Home Society of California. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

SAN RAMON — Under low banks of fluorescent lights, around long tables laden with infants’ outfits, office workers at Enterprise Holdings listen closely as Loved Twice founder Lisa Klein tells them why they are there.

“Today, you’re going to sort clothes for homeless babies in the Bay Area. You’re going to do a lot of oohing and aahing, and you’re going to be making a huge impact in the community,” Klein says. “We’re going to fill these boxes up. You’re going to make a new starter kit for a new baby, a baby who basically has nothing, a baby who might be homeless. The mom might be giving birth at the hospital, will take the baby and the box on a bus and go straight to a shelter.”

Thirteen years after her initial charitable response to a natural disaster, Klein knows she can look forward to many hands making light work of looking out for new mothers.

Klein’s beginning is as straightforward as any superhero’s origin story: the desire to help someone in need.

In 2005, she wanted to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, but with a new baby at home, she couldn’t physically go to New Orleans. Instead, she went on Craigslist New Orleans.

“I found this church and they said, ‘We need help, we don’t know how long we’ll have internet but we have 50 families that walked here and they have absolutely nothing. We need people across the United States to mail us sleeping bags, towels, backpacks, flashlights, medicine, baby clothes,'” Klein recalled. “And once they said ‘baby clothes,’ I knew I could help. I had an attic full of baby clothes.”

She also was in in a new mom’s group with 15 friends who had babies. She emailed them.

“I received 200 pounds of baby clothes on my front porch in four days,” she said.

The clothes were sorted into boys or girls boxes for easier distribution. “And then I mailed them off, went to bed, that felt great. And the next morning, I woke up and there were more clothes on my front porch.”

And so it went, until the realization six years later that her impulse to help needed a more sustainable foundation if it was to continue.

“I was running Loved Twice out of the basement of my house since its inception, and it was a little crowded because we get a lot of baby clothes,” Klein said. “There were a lot of volunteers coming in and out of my home, dropping clothes off and I just put a call out in the community that I can’t do this anymore, unless we get funding for a space. I’d be in my bathrobe helping volunteers unload their minivan.”

“My goal is to have the clothes come in and the clothes go out very soon so they can be keeping babies warm and clean and cozy,” Klein said. “We’re so grateful for the community that has helped us get to this place.”

Loved Twice has also received funding this year from Share the Spirit, an annual holiday campaign that serves needy residents in the East Bay. Donations support programs of more than 50 nonprofit agencies in Contra Costa and Alameda counties.

Klein solicits area businesses to help sort the clothes, and now she has a list of companies clamoring to help a good cause.

On a clear and sunny October afternoon, the warehouse was a conference room at Bishop Ranch office park, full of employees from Enterprise Holdings, sorting and smiling, cracking jokes and packing boxes full of mostly clean clothing for their next homes, a unity of corporate effort and nonprofit know-how.

Loved Twice distributes to 154 social-service agencies. Klein estimates that since its founding, the nonprofit has provided 1.6 million gently used garments and packed 21,425 packed boxes for mothers in need.

But the work hasn’t just changed some Bay Area mothers’ lives, it’s also changed Klein, a 20-year resident with her own grown offspring, who now can pitch in.

“I love that my children can help with this, it’s a volunteer project that is easy,” she said. “They can sort clothes into boy and girl boxes, they can come with me to drop them off to the social workers, and they can really see the different levels of how fortunate some people are and how some people are not fortunate.”

SHARE THE SPIRIT

The Share the Spirit holiday campaign, sponsored by the Bay Area News Group, serves needy residents of Alameda and Contra Costa counties by funding nonprofit holiday and outreach programs.

To make a tax-deductible contribution, clip the coupon accompanying this story or go to www.sharethespiriteastbay.org/donate. Readers with questions, and individuals or businesses interested in making large contributions, may contact the Share the Spirit program at 925-472-5760 or sharethespirit@crisis-center.org.

George Kelly is a breaking news reporter for the Bay Area News Group. He has worked as an online coordinator and, before that, a copy editor and page designer for Bay Area-based newspapers and magazines. Off work, he enjoys playing in bands, busking and karaoke. His first newspaper job was as a Washington Post paperboy.

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